Geneva in April belongs to watches. The city fills with collectors, journalists, and brand representatives, all chasing the newest thing. Auro Montanari, better known as John Goldberger, arrives with a different question. Not what is new, but what lasts. It is the question that has shaped his career as a photographer and a collector, and it is the question at the centre of his new exhibition with Leica.
"Timeless: Through the Lens of John Goldberger" opens at the Leica Store Geneva on April 16th, running through May 15th. The exhibition brings together photographs shot across decades of travel, captured on both the Leica SL3 and vintage Leica cameras. The images span cities, objects, and moments that Goldberger considers instinctively timeless. Bologna, where he lives. Wetzlar, where Leica still operates. Countless locations in between.
Goldberger has authored eleven books and built a reputation as one of the most respected vintage watch collectors alive. His entry point was photography, introduced by his father at an early age. The eye he developed shooting streets is the same eye he later turned on dials and cases. For Goldberger, the connection is not metaphorical. Both disciplines demand precision, craftsmanship, and a sense of design that does not age. Both, in his words, reflect a lifelong passion.
That parallel is precisely what drew Leica to this collaboration. For Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Leica Camera AG, the exhibition is an expression of something the brand has long believed: that the values behind a great camera and a great watch are not as distant as they might appear.
